Economics is often used in literary studies, but rarely free market economics. Austrian economics, with its emphasis on subjective value (Menger), human action (Mises), spontaneous order and knowledge (Hayek), and entrepreneurship (Kirzner), seems a particularly fruitful source of ideas for literary studies.

Monday, April 29, 2013

The first poem at The Freeman is Frederick Turner's Tirzah. It seems The Freeman is certainly starting off strong with this experiment in publishing poetry. If they continue to publish such strong works, that is certainly a good thing. This poem is poetry first and foremost. This shows the people at The Freeman are serious about changing the culture, which is what is truly necessary to get classical liberalism accepted by the general public.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Just when you thought there could not be more about Shakespeare, scholars are now focused on the evidence that he was a shrewd businessman. Not just in regards to his theater, but also in regards to grain. And though I don't know if he was a borrower, it turned how that he was a lender.

So we have Shakespeare the teacher, Shakespeare the actor, Shakespeare the poet, Shakespeare the businessman, and Shakespeare the lender.

How much this "new" information is being brought forth in order to try to bring Shakespeare down a few pegs, it's hard to tell. The assumption by most scholars is that market activity is morally degrading. If Shakespeare was (horror of horrors) not just a businessman, but a horder, a tax evader, and a lender at interest, how can we revere him?

It seems to me that this is prime fodder for literary scholars influenced by Austrian economics. We can use this information to see just how informed Shakespeare was in regards to business. And the reason Shakespeare was hording grain was, no doubt, because of the famines caused by the Little Ice Age. This would suggest, rather, Shakespeare was as wise in business as he was in his poetry. But that is the argument which needs to be made. Further, we can ask, too, if we see these elements in Shakespeare's works, and what they mean in that light. This is culture as spontaneous order influencing the contents of Shakespeare. This is what the Austrian school of economics can bring to bear.

While doing research on the influence of literature on scientists' creativity, I ran across Nicholas Vazsonyi's Searching for "The Order of Things": Does Goethe's Faust II Suffer from the "Fatal Conceit"? in Monatshefte, Vol. 88, No. 1, 1996. Yes, that is Foucault, Hayek, and Goethe. And the piece comes full circle, beginning and ending with a discussion of chaos theory. How many hidden gems of Austrian Economics and Literature -- early work in the field -- are out there?